week 12, 13

SORRY....we have been  in sunny Ibiza and then back and rushing about as usual...!

The first thing i found early on the Thursday morning on my return was the bantam hen that had vanished earlier on in June....with masses of chicks!  I was pretty sure she was sitting on a 'clutch' somewhere, and sure enough we found her nest later on that day, in the Fruit Cage - she had been sitting under a gooseberry bush for 3 weeks!!  A brilliant mother - she fair rushes at you if you get too close!  We did try putting her and her brood into the Pig Nursery, but when i went out to shut hens in that evening she had managed to move back across to the Fruit Cage with all her chicks again!  Now they are just 'free range' in amongst all the raised beds - ok for a bit, but i think we will have to try and move her in with the others before they get much bigger!

her 'clutch'

one of the 13 chicks our clever
bantam hatched  under
a gooseberry bush!

This week, we visited the Farmers Market at nearby Driffield, where they have a monthly Poultry sale...to sell some of our cockerels, and growers!   Unfortunately the 6 chicks that hatched (out of 24) in the incubator were ALL cockerels - and we already had 5 Bantam cockerels - so, reluctantly we had to also get rid of another 3 cockerels as well!   They maid the princely sum of 20 pence each...!  Like last time we went to market, we came out making a loss, as our purchases outweighed our selling.....we bought 30 Japanese Quail eggs to hatch in the incubator.    It is so lovely and hot at the moment, that we are finding it difficult to keep the porta cabin cool enough so that the incubator doesn't over heat!

a toad we found in the Fruit
Cage!

We have been picking madly too for Gerry's regular stall at Friday's Country Market behind the Brewery Arts Centre in Cirencester.   We picked salads, sugar snap peas, broad beans, and our first Strawberries.

We had a visit from Sam, a soldier serving with 29th RLC Regiment at South Cerney Barracks - he's hoping to become a regular volunteer from the Autumn.

On Saturday, Gerry and i went to the Cotswold Country Fair, at the Kennels Andoversford - it was scorching hot - which was lucky, as we took bottles of Elderflower Cordial, and sold ice cold glasses of it!